Not necessarily the Duma was the lower house of the Government
assembly- which was nominally democratic, the Presidium is and was
the Upper House- the duma roughly corresponds to the .S. House of
representatives, and the Presidium to the Senate. I believe both of
these have been revived in modern, Post-Soviet Russia. The
Presidium had, put mildly, Class. Most modern Presidium officers
were ranking officers of the Army or KGB in Soviet times, and
Nobility in Czarist days.